1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic unit having identification information thereof, such as a vehicle mounted electronic control unit.
2. Description of Related Art
As proposed, for example, in published Japanese translation 9-503340 of PCT/US95/09032, there is known an electronic unit which has an ID tag attached to a connector thereof, and is automatically connected to a network to which an administration apparatus is connected when the connector is plugged into a receptacle. The administration apparatus monitors, through the network, the number and types of such electronic units whose connectors are plugged into receptacles. Accordingly, the administration apparatus can detect unauthorized removal or replacement of any of such electronic units.
It is also known to attach a tag containing ID information of a vehicle-mounted electronic unit to a connector of this vehicle-mounted electronic unit. This makes it possible to administrate various vehicle-mounted electronic units interconnected via an in-vehicle network.
However, the conventional vehicle component management system using such an in-vehicle network has a problem in that the ID information of a vehicle-mounted electronic unit cannot be read if its connector is not plugged into a corresponding receptacle. It is because, an ID reading device connected to the in-vehicle network cannot recognize a vehicle-mounted electronic unit until it is connected to this network by plugging its connector to a corresponding receptacle. This lowers the usability of the vehicle component management system.
Incidentally, it has been proposed to administrate vehicle components after they are shipped from factories at an administration center in order to prevent them from being stolen from a vehicle and sold away for use in other vehicles. This system makes it possible to confirm at a repair shop, for example, whether a vehicle component supposed to be mounted on a vehicle as a replacement or an additional component is an authentic one by reading the ID information from a tag attached to this component and sending it to the administration center.
However, also in such a system, to read the ID information from the tag, the connector of this vehicle component has to be plugged into a corresponding receptacle so that this vehicle component is connected to the network or to a test dedicated device. This lowers working efficiency in replacing or additionally installing the vehicle component at the repair shop.